Part 5 ~ The Adventures of King Ben & Zeus the Big Dumb Dog

If you missed the start of this series, you can find it here. A lot of things will be the same or very similar.

The Bounce occurred at an astonishingly late 5:00AM today! Of course, I had woken up earlier in antici…pation. I was just dozing back off when I felt the bedquake. I was shocked out of the doze by cold feet on my legs and cold nose in my ear. A normal morning…sigh.

I had plans to be at the grocery store, and in line, before they opened so I could get more chicken, steak and “orange chicken” for King Ben. Older Daughter texted that she was on the way home and I waited for her to arrive. I hoped she could convince Ben to join her in her bed and I could sneak out. The next thing I knew was Ben pounding me on the back like a Bongo Drum, yelling “Wake up, Gramma. Wake up!” I told him I was awake. Then I looked at my phone (still in my hand) and saw that it was 8:00AM. Aww, Dang! I texted Daughter and let her know I was awake, sorry for missing her homecoming and that I would still try the stores if she was really worried. She told me to forget it for today, try tomorrow. We’re only out of his “orange chicken” and I can always make a drive through the Golden Arches if it becomes an issue. We’ve got food, we’re just trying to plan ahead.

So, off to the living room for another day of Avatar on repeat. Ben settled on the couch with tablet, Goldfish (🎶 I like the fishes cuz they’re so delicious…gotta go fishin) and juice. Zeus had once again scored the coveted spot next to my spot. I did the med thing, the Sven in the tub thing and played around on my phone… reminding Ben to say “excuse me” whenever he burps or has a “rumble booty”. It’s a game now, which bugs! He will burp, say “Gramma?” and wait for me to ask “What do you say?” Only then will he say “Excuse me”. The point, obviously, was to teach him manners. Again, King Ben does as King Ben likes, that’s why he’s the King.

The morning flowed into the afternoon in a (surprisingly) calm manner. Ben did his thing and I had time to do one of Rory’s new game prompts. It was all copy/paste, but still… amazing, right?!

At 2:00PM Daughter got up from her nap and came to tag me out on Ben Duty. I gathered my stuff, gave a quick report, and headed to my bed. It’s horizontal time (queue music from Hammer Time). Ben and Zeus followed me, because of course they did.

At 3:30PM Daughter’s BFF (and Ben’s Godmother or Nina) showed up with TP, diaper wipes, chicken, steak and butter.

Hurray!! I had gone online and found coffee, creamer and denture adhesive (which is what I started out looking for) on Amazon and ordered it. Ben’s “orange chicken” may be being phased out because it’s impossible to find. I was telling Daughter that we should try a different kind and see if he’ll eat it.

Daughter and BFF settled on the couch, Zeus ran around barking his fool head off, Ben zigged, zagged and pinballed around and amongst, and I went to hide in my room. Complete chaos! Zeus followed me after realizing I had left, Ben started performing for attention by dancing, demanding selfie group shots with his tablet and generally going into manic hyper overdrive. I’m feeling drained and exhausted all over again just writing about it.

While Daughter was visiting with BFF and Ben was bopping around, he snagged Daughter’s tablet and brought it into my room. I told him VERY LOUDLY that he shouldn’t take Mommy’s tablet without asking, figuring Daughter would hear. He surfed around… a little bit of The Matrix followed by a little bit of The Mummy Returns.

Daughter comes running into my room yelling about him ordering movies. I told her again that he had her tablet. Apparently she never changed the controls on that one. Ben has now managed to enrich Amazon from three separate tablets. At that point we couldn’t take it from him without causing a major scene, possibly a meltdown. It was close to night meds and bath & bedtime. I told him “No more pressing the orange button! No more orange button or Mommy is gonna take the tablet away.” He said okay,  and settled with his other purchase The Mummy and his half of a Red Baron pizza.

Younger Daughter stopped by while Ben was in the bath. She had forgotten her Teddy Bear (Squishy Bear) in my car when she had the Drama a few days ago. She also grabbed a couple juices (single items, not boxes) and a couple packs of wipes. Welcome to Grand Central Station.

BFF went home, Younger left, Ben got out of the bath and he and Zeus went to bedtime. Followed shortly by Older Daughter, for her evening, pre-work sleep.

Right after Daughter went to bed there was a knock on the front door. I had no idea who it could be, Amazon does a soft knock, not a loud one. I went to see who it was. At the door was another one of Daughter’s friends with six boxes of Ben’s “orange chicken”. I told her Thank You, Thank You! and paid her. It’s a good thing I got a bunch of cash at the beginning of the madness. So Ben is set. This time through the kindness of Daughter’s friends.

I’m off to the corner market for a couple of things, then I need to eat and rest. It’s been another Adventurous day. Stay tuned…